RHGS Event - Purple Gang Detroit

Historian Joe Oldenburg will discuss the Purple Gang, Detroit’s Own Prohibition Era Criminal Gang. It was an all-Jewish gang that ruled Detroit’s illegal booze market for less than a decade during Prohibition. It was led by the four Bernstein brothers and was said to have made tens of millions of dollars in liquor smuggling, gambling, hijacking, extortion, and labor racketeering. The Purples were said to be responsible for hundreds of gangland slayings plus the death of a Michigan state senator. 

For more information contact RHGS representative, Ken Schramm, 313-884-3067.